


Rosetta Stone

by ANobleCompanion



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Feelings, Fluff, Language Barrier, Languages and Linguistics, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-27
Updated: 2013-07-27
Packaged: 2017-12-21 11:39:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/899864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ANobleCompanion/pseuds/ANobleCompanion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas speaks all the languages of the world, but he still can't understand Dean.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rosetta Stone

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to cliffnotesofanerd for the beta!!!

For the countless years of his existence, Castiel spoke all the languages of mankind.  He understood these languages before humanity itself developed them.  Despite this, Castiel still found communication to be a very difficult concept.  

He discovered there was much more to language than the spoken word.  For this, Dean became his Rosetta Stone.

Dean was a man of action over words and at first, Cas couldn’t translate.  When he first raised Dean from Perdition, he didn’t understand why the hunter ran so far and so fast to help those close to him no matter the cost to himself.  Dean’s actions were the unknown quantity - the hieroglyphs at the top of the stone.

Then Cas found an opportunity to thank Dean for all he did for the world - and for Cas.  He thought by now he understood Dean’s actions and he tried to communicate his appreciation in the same language.  As he so often observed Dean do, he opted to put Dean before himself and to take the weight of the world and Heaven’s troubles on his own shoulders, allowing Dean to live his own life, separate and peaceful.  But there were drastic errors in his translation, and it nearly led to the destruction of all Cas held dear.

His translation had landed Dean in Purgatory.

There, Dean started to speak with words.  “I need you.”  Cas understood those words.  He needed Dean too.  He needed Dean for his own sense of balance between sanity and the recognition of his past deeds.  This was Cas’s Greek, a language familiar in its ancient accessibility.  He had needed his brothers in his garrison, depended on them in battle.  They were warriors and survivors together, brothers in arms willing to sacrifice for each other.  But this need was still tied up in words, separated from action.  Cas couldn’t draw a link between the two.  

When Cas left Dean in the Crypt - as he had in Purgatory before that - Dean told him he needed him once again.  But Cas knew “need” was relative.  His presence would only complicate Dean’s life as he worried about Sam and his self-appointed task to save the world again.  Dean could and would survive better without him.  

When Cas returned to Dean after he fell, Dean was furious with him.  He railed at Cas for leaving, for acting without Dean yet again.  Cas could not understand the rage.  He didn't  _want_  to leave Dean, but Dean never asked him to stay either.  He watched Dean, his brow furrowed in confusion as the hunter paced the length of the war room.  

Finally, Dean stopped and looked at Cas with a startling intensity.  He ran his hand through his hair and moved forward as though finally deciding something.  He grasped Cas’s head gently, yet firmly in his hands so Cas had to look him directly in the eyes.  

“I _need_ you, Cas.”

Cas knew this.  He understood this.  

Dean moved forward, pressing his lips against Cas’s with an earth shattering tenderness.  Warmth flooded through Cas, filling his chest and chasing through the tips of his extremities, pushed along by a tidal wave of confusion.  Cas couldn’t make the connection between Dean’s actions and Dean’s words.

Dean pulled back and looked into Cas’s eyes again, making sure the fallen angel was looking back before he spoke.

“I _love_ you, Cas.”

Oh.  It was the third piece.  It was the demotic script Cas needed to put all the languages of Dean together.  

Dean had been saying the same thing in three languages.  The language of the body, of the soul and of the heart.  

He smiled as he leaned forward to return the action, the words and the feelings.  

Cas now understood him fluently.  


End file.
